Category 50K

Having successfully finished two 50k races now I can officially call myself an Ultra Marathoner. Unlike some I feel that the additional 4.868 miles of a 50k over a marathon counts as an Ultra. It’s like doing a Marathon plus a 5k race and then some. It counts. Period. The reason I think so it that personally it takes more effort and planning to crank out 31+ miles over marathon. No it is not the same effort as a 50 mile, but it is still requires a little more fuel and hydration, extra time on legs and most importantly the mental strength to go just one more 5k and even more so to go beyond that. That’s my take on it anyway and frankly I don’t give a rats rear if you’re an elite 50 miler who doesn’t think a 50k qualifies as an Ultra, because it does so there. :p

That said I am not
going to lie, I am more than a little terrified to face my first ‘real’ ultra
50 mile race. This weekend’s Go Longer 50k in the subfreezing temperatures and
winds reminded me just how horrible the pain can be during a race and at the end
of 31 miles; now add on top of that another 19 miles and I am frankly
challenged to wrap my mind around how I’m going to be able to do that. Saturday was a real struggle for me. I hurt,
a lot, mainly because of the cold. My head was in a bad place due to fear of
some unknowns and the cold wind just made me feel absolutely miserable. It was
my turn to be down and need support and that is exactly what I got. Trex was
more than upbeat and cheerful the whole way and helped me not to sink too far
into the doldrums. I am grateful.

So if I have learned
anything from this journey it is to trust my training, stick to the plan (as
best I can), lean on your partner if needed, and remember that with every
distance the accomplishment is going past the wall, and the wall comes when it
comes.

So that’s all there
is to it. Right? I mean really it’s just tackling a little less than two
marathons back to back. Right? As if one marathon isn’t hard enough?!!! Why am
I doing this? (((Begin Panic Attack)))

….. 10 minutes later (((End Panic Attack)))

Okay with that over
and done with I can resume my plans to pack and prep for Rocky. I have exactly
one day off every year, today, MLK Day, when my kids are in school, the spouse
is at work, and it’s an observed company holiday for me. So after I write this
post I will make the most of my time and pack and plan for my race. I actually
enjoy packing and prepping for a race, so it will be nice to do it without
constant interruption. But before I start packing I am reviewing what I learned
from this weekend, revising my To-Do and packing lists, and making notes to
ensure I prep and pack having gained more insight. So here’s a list of things I
learned from this weekend:

I learned that I
can’t eat nearly as much food as I planned, but that having it sorted in go
bags was brilliant and saved time. Some tweak need to be made to how
label/number by bag sets.

I learned that a
combo of Spring Energy fuel with some Huma and PB, Hot Chocolate and Hot Broth
sprinkled in does a body good.

I also learned that
subfreezing temps slows me way down at the aid stations because my whole body
is stiff and my hands are shaking and ridged. Let’s hope it’s not this bad at
Rocky.

I learned I should
have remembered to use handwarmers on my exposed bottles to prevent freezing.
If it hadn’t been below freezing and the straws on my bottles hadn’t frozen I
could have saved more time in and out of rest stops.

I learned I need to
have rubber gloves or a dry change of gloves so I can more quickly refill my
bottles without having to expose my fingers in extreme cold temps.

I learned I am going
to have to use the volunteers at the aid stations and need to have an efficient
method for handing off my bottles and drink mixes so that the required
communication and time are minimal. For this I plan to separate my food and
drink mixes and I plan to rotate 4 bottles in my pack and have pre-filled
bottles in my drop bag. Two full and two empty so I can easily add mix to empty
bottles and just hand those to be refilled. I actually had this setup ready for
this weekend but I failed to execute my plan due to a few issues. First I still
had water in my front bottles when I arrived at the car aid stations. So rather
than swap them I opted to refill them. Two I struggled with getting to my empty
bottles stored in the back because the rear storage in my Nathan Vapor Krar 12L
is nearly inaccessible without taking the damn thing off or having Trex help me
retrieve stuff. I find this to be dangerous on trails as I am likely to trip
doing this, especially in the dark. Which is the reason I just bought a Salomon
Advanced Skin 12 Set. I lucked out and it was on sale today so it should arrive
just in time for the trip.

I learned that sticking to Trex’s well planned out pacing workouts does the trick, except for when one of us decides to break pace and “reel-in” some other runners with whom we were not technically competing since they weren’t even doing the same distance as us.

I learned that Altra
Men’s Paradigms sort of fit my feet. Remind me to rant about shoe sizing in a
later post.

And most of all I
learned that I am very very lucky, fortunate, and grateful to have a wingman
like Trex by my side.

Yesterday we did our last long run before our debut at Rocky Raccoon 50 mile in 3 weeks. We really couldn’t have picked a worse day to have a race. The weather on Friday was 50-60 and no wind, the weather today is clear and no wind although cold. The weather on Saturday was 20’s with 20mph winds gusting to 40mph.

I won’t lie the headwind was real and when we had to cut across it it was worse. A 3/4 angle 40mph gusting in the face as we determined is just more horrible than it bashing you straight on in the face.

The race got off without any issues, we started out doing our planned Rocky pacing which over time proved to be just a little slow for our legs. About 5-8 miles in we ended up going about 30 seconds per mile faster than we’re shooting for for Rocky. This continued over the course of the entire 31 miles.

Due to the cold not everyone showed up we’re guessing and of those that showed up it’s possible a few decided not to go back out on the second lap. In the end only 32 people crossed the finish line the second time to clock in the full 50K.

Support was typical for a street race held by FleetFeet but again the cold cut the number of volunteers down to the barest of bare minimums for lap 1. We’d like to offer our most heartfelt thank you for the few brave souls who came out to support the runners, you’re always appreciated from the bottom of ours and every runners hearts.

3 or 4 miles from the end of lap 2 we started to see groups of 25K runners ahead even with the 8 minute resupply we did from our own car based aid station and some 2 and 3 minute potty breaks. At this point my competitive streak, not very wide but sometimes pointy, kicked in and we kicked the pace up by a couple of minutes per mile and skipped our breaks to reel the runners ahead one by one, group by group. Not the wisest of things to do on a training run but it proved we were capable of doing it and pushed us a bit which with the 3 week taper coming up should in the end make us stronger for Rocky.

For lap 2 it got pretty lonely out there with all but 1 of the aid stations deserted when we came through with no one in sight or possibly trying to warm up in their cars. But there was water and some pretzels and granola bars at each one when we needed them. A trail ultra with fresh cooked bacon and quesadillas it was not but it also doesn’t cost as much as a trail ultra so one can’t complain too much.

Our pacing and plan showed its value as we continued to reel in a few 50K’ers catching up and passing another 5 or 6 who’d started out good but burned out by mile 20-25. In fairness the cold and wind was just miserable. We know of at least one person who seems to have dropped around 40k, at least they didn’t have a finish time.

Tim, the owner of the local FleetFeets, was there along with a helper till the bitterly cold end to greet Bunny and myself as we crossed the finish line for lap 2 completing our second 50K. Even announcing us over the PA system even though there was literally no one else around to hear it. He gave us our medals and as it turned out we placed in our age groups so we got a race logo’d coffee cup as well.

Finishing long distance races with little fanfare and zero crowds or cheering is something we’re used to and will always have waiting for us. We’re never going to be in the front pack where the excitement is. But we run for us (and the medals) not for having a crowd of strangers applauding our showing up at the end of a race. 🙂

Overall it was a good race/run. We cut almost an hour and a half off our 50k PR and half an hour off our trail marathon PR. We proved to ourselves our race plan works. We determined that Spring Energy fuels work for us without any bad side effects and that our fueling and hydration plan worked.

So… our first 50K has been achieved and we made the cut offs and weren’t DFL (although it was a close thing)…

This is my Dead Horse Race Report from November 17th 2018:

For the TLDR; visitors:

Everything I liked –

Course was well laid out and marked. If you’re paying attention at all it’s impossible to get off course. Follow the blue strips and the painted on markers and you’re golden.

Course was gorgeous and ‘postcard’ worthy 95% of the trail. Everywhere you looked, unless you didn’t like rocks, was a great view of Mother Nature in all her rocky glory.

Support was good, aid stations were well staffed and stocked with all the things that non-restricted diet ultra runners might need. If you’re LCHF / Keto / Vegan then you should probably plan for that head of time although there was fresh cooked bacon at two of the aid stations.

Moab was a fun little town with some good restaurants and hotels.

If you have the time and the extra cash then there are a ton of adventure type places where you can rent bikes, motorcycles, quads, jeeps and hummers to go out and about in the desert either pre or post race.

While we didn’t get to do it, there’s a ton of local natural points of interest in the area that could add a lot of value for a lot of folks.

They had a medal! #jewelrycollector

Things were not all gumdrops and puppies –

I hate to be even slightly critical of the wonderful folks that volunteer at aid stations, giving up hours of their days for typically nothing in return but smiles and thanks. But don’t be afraid to jump out there and grab bottles from folks, especially the front packers, that minute or two saved while they get food or hit the bathroom.

More portapotties at the aid stations. I know it seems silly when you’re in a massive desert and you could just go pee anywhere but in this particular instance when they request you do not leave the trail for any reason to avoid damaging the environment more than 1 porta-potty for a set of ultras with 900 runners even with staggered start times causes a backlog on the outbound trip.

This isn’t a negative about the race or the support or anything but just be aware that mile upon mile of slick rock is very hard on the body. If you haven’t trained on road much you’re going to be hurting when you’re done because that rock was….some hard stuff.

Paying for race photos. This is just a pet peeve of mine, I appreciate the cost for the race organizers of hiring a photographer to camp out in the desert for the day taking photos of strangers stumbling by and making this part of the swag. I get it. I also though won’t pay $15 for a jpg file or $20 for printed photo. That’s my personal thing and others I’m sure feel differently.

For those visitors who like long rambling first person reports:

We arrived on Friday morning and the scenery was both gorgeous and a little intimidating. We passed the staging area on the way from the tiny little airport that services Moab and the area and they had a lot of it already set up, the starting lane, overhead, some tents and etc and there were a fair number of folks working on the rest. That was a good omen for us.

We spent the day in Moab, shopping for groceries (beets, honey nut cheerios, bananas, chocolate milk, regular milk, sugar Coke etc) and meandering around the place while we waited for our rooms to be ready.

We got into our rooms and unpacked and just had a short wait before we walked over to the arts center where they were doing packet pickup. We picked up our bibs, timing chips (new thing for us), t-shirts and hat without much fuss.

Ready for anything

Bunny foo foo

Dinner was at Eddie McStiff’s restaurant, a cobb salad for me and a feta salad with grilled salmon for her. The salads were good, service was great, prices were in line with a tourist town restaurant on the main drag.

Back to the hotel we split up to re-organize our gear, we had to undo our careful packing to comply with certain TSA regulations which in the end they completely ignored and just waved us through on our outbound trip. Don’t get me started.

We went to sleep early, with limited success on both our parts and were up at 4 the next morning but it was only 5 our body time so it wasn’t as bad as it could be. This might be a reason to always look West for ultra’s since we get to take advantage of the time zone difference in a good way.

Upon arrival at the race we were happy to see a long line of porta-potty’s, the day before there were only 4 which left us a little concerned about lines.

Here we are.

Our ‘pirate’ outfits immediately drew comments of “I found Waldo…” from folks. So much for being pirates.

Our gear bags were dropped off in the truck and we waited for the race start. The race briefing before the race was about the same as every trail race we’ve done, what to do, what not to do, what markings to look for etc. It was competently done.

Waiting for the start

Right at 7:00 a.m. the race started and we eased out behind most people. Our plan called for a half K walk to warm up. I’ve found this helps me mentally and physically on LSD run days to get into the spirit of a really long run. I’m not sure it’s needed for a race though.

Uphill

The course from the start had a bit of an hill trek to it…

On our first part of the trip we got to talk with a few people briefly and everyone seemed to enjoy our Waldo pirate outfits. The first mile+ was uphill at a fair clip and then we traveled through a canyon on a dirt/sand road for another mile maybe and then we hooked right off the road and onto the desert rock proper. We almost missed the turn, not through bad markings but just not paying attention. A lady behind us who ended up passing us right at the end and finishing ahead of us (bright salmon colored shirt/jacket) kept us from heading off into the distance.

Until the first aid station we were trending uphill and running on a mix of hard packed dirt (like concrete) and desert slick rock (which felt harder than any road I’ve ever run on). The whole way was nothing but one postcard moment after another. At any given time there was a gorgeous view in at least 180 degrees around you. Sometimes there was a hill to your left or right that kept you from seeing what was over there.

Leaving the first aid station we moseyed on to the second. It was a much larger set up complete with one porta-potty. Unfortunately the line for said porta-potty was 15 minutes long. A fair number of folks hadn’t been able to move things along before the race and were having to do it now after 7.5 miles of jostling their insides around.

After finally being able to make room for more water we headed out to the turn around. This terrain was just more uphill with photo-ops everywhere. How the lead runners were able to average a 6 minute pace for 50K is beyond me, they had to be literally flying on the back half. But then I can’t average a 6 minute pace for more than a few hundred yards so maybe it’s just not a big deal for them.

We were getting to the 15 mile turn around right as the first 50 milers were coming through. They had a 10 mile out and back (20 total) from our turn around, other than that they ran the same course. So yes, the front pack ran 35 miles with an hours head start in the time it took use to run 15.

We swapped out some gear from our drop bags here. I dropped my stocking cap and long sleeve shirt as I was getting warm. I filled up on bacon, cheese quesadillas, coke and cider while waiting for the RW to get ready. It was about this time that my left knee started having a hissy fit. We also spent another 15 minutes+ here.

Getting into and out of aid stations is something we’re going to have to work on, we probably spent a good 45-55 minutes total scattered over 5 aid stations.

Long way down…

Because of my foot injuries I was favoring my right leg which pushed my left leg harder and my knee took the brunt of it. Over the course of the next 15 miles to the finish I would start having more and more difficulty in running and any incline but especially uphill inclines would cause me significant jolts of pain.

On the way back the trail takes you next to the edge of several great drop offs, like a if you fall you not only die but you make a Rorschach pattern when you hit kind of drop off. The vertigo was real a couple of times edging up to look over.

The back trail while it trended downhill obviously, it had a fair bit more up and down baby inclines which did my knee no good at all. The distance between aid stations back was also different, I got hit with some bad quad cramps so I was focused on getting by but from what I do remember it was a great section.

Back at aid station 2/4 I was getting worried about my lack of a need to urinate given how much water I was taking in and luckily the one porta-potty was free so I fruitlessly wasted some time in it without any satisfaction so more time added to the clock.

The distance back to aid station 1/5 was deceptively long and I made the assumption it was the same distance as going out so I only had one water bottle. Bad choice. Lesson learned, note the distances between AS’s both ways and carry water accordingly. Things are really starting to fall apart now. Cramps, swollen feet leading to toe jam forcing me to take my socks off to make some room and knee screaming at me and I was at my limit for pain killer.

RW was a champ though, she got my shoes and socks off and my shoes back on when there was literally no way I’d of been able to do it. Another 7-8 minutes wasted on this maneuver.

We finally hit a dirt albeit sand road and were off the oh so hard slick rock which lead us to the last aid station. There a very nice set of volunteers had our bottles filled and us on our way in no time at all leaving us with about 3.5 miles of all uphill followed by all downhill back to the finish line.

This part I won’t lie was torture. Since it was almost all up or down inclines my knee was being the loudest of the dwarfs Screamy. I’d “run” a bit till it wouldn’t go any further and then walk. And by bit I mean maybe 100 yards.

We got through the beautiful canyon section and up on the face of the cliff on the left (on the way back) and the finish line was about 2 miles (best guess) in the distance about equally split between downhill (#ouchmferouch) and a gravel road.

In the videos of this section there will be a fair bit of bleeping to make the video kid friendly. I sack up and run the last half mile, trying to smile at the folks out watching the 50 miler mid pack start to come through, oh and us and hopefully succeeding although my running form was more a Frankensteinian lurch at this point. Which some would say it always is.

Achievement Get: 50K

Crossing the finish line without much fanfare we got de-chipped and our medals, picked up our drop bags which were waiting for us and to the car where we enjoyed a bottle of Promised Land full fat chocolate milk and a full sugar Coke that I had to open with the key of the rental car because it was in the old style bottles with a pry off lid.

On the way back to our hotel rooms we started a new segment quite by accident that we’ll calling Runners in Cars After Races or something like that. I think in a few years when we watch it again we’ll think it’s either hilarious or the most stupid thing in the world to bother video taping.

Afterwards, albeit after a significant PTSD event that was a first for me, we went down to the Moab Diner and split an order of pancakes, eggs, ham, bacon cheeseburger and fries with a side of onion rings. It was delish.

It’s 4:53 p.m. on Sunday and in 6 days, Saturday the 17th, we’ll be finished with our first 50K (if we’re not by this time on Saturday then something went horribly wrong).

I did a 10K run this morning and frankly I’m not thrilled about how I’m going to do in the race. My HR was too high for what should have been an easy effort in 40 degree temperatures. The forced break has cost me more than I like in endurance and conditioning.

But it is what it is and there’s no take backsies. So we’re going to knock this out so we can join the ranks of the Ultra Marathoners. Now some ultra runners have an opinion that ultra marathons really only start at 50 miles. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But my opinion is I’m putting the Ultra charm I’ve had for over an year on my RoadID at race end when I add my 50K charm.

We’ve both got our stuffs packed up, check lists checked and double checked and we’re going to give it our all. Not much more we can do.

We’re in our taper weeks (thank goodness) for our first 50K (2 weeks out!). It’s been a interesting journey to get here from that first 5K I agreed to 2+ years ago when I was a 100 yard runner and 100+lbs heavier. A journey filled with learning about shoes and socks, shirts, shorts, tights, watches, training, hydration,fueling and the list goes on and on. There have been injuries and forced layoffs as well as high points of PR’s set and re-set for shorter distances.

And now here I am about to travel 31.5 (ish) miles in one stretch. To get here I’ve picked up a few things that work for me and by necessity have worked for Bunny. One of those is what I feel is a winning strategy for me to finish this thing in a time I won’t be too unhappy with and doing it injury free so we can jump into the training for Rocky.

To wit: for me a run/walk is faster than trying to run until I can’t run another step and being forced to walk and less stressful both physically and mentally.

We’re going to be running the following workout on our Garmin’s for Dead Horse –

Warmup (walking pace) for 0.5k

Run 1K at a pace between 11:00 and 13:00

Walk 0.25K with no pace target but typically my walking pace is between 18 and 20

Every 6th walk will be a double walk of 0.5k

Repeat 2-4 until we cross the finish line.

We will also walk every incline of significant excessive slope. Because literally 80% (an out of my ass guess) of the first 25K is uphill we can’t walk every uphill since we’d be walking the front half of this course but any excessive inclines we’ll walk it out.

We’ll take time to enjoy the folks at the aid stations, the scenery and the entire process and experience of our first ultra.

I doubt we’ll finish DFL but I know we also won’t finish above the 50% mark. It’s been my experience and observation the longer the race the farther back I place. And I’m fine with that.

For Rocky 50 Mile race , pending the results of the Dead Horse 50K run, we’re considering splitting the difference. The first 25 miles we’ll do a distance based run/walk. The remaining distance we’ll do a time based run walk of 7 minutes / 3 minutes. At our cruising paces these are fairly equivalent but it would be interesting to do the 50 mile and see how it changes the ‘feel’ of the race.

For that one it works out like this –

Warmup (walking pace) for 0.5k

Run 1K at a pace between 11:00 and 13:00

Walk 0.25K with no pace target but typically my walking pace is between 18 and 20

On the heals of our first ultra we ran our last long race/runs this weekend, a combo 5K/15K street race followed by nearly 19k on our usual trail loops on Turkey mountain to complete the distance. As mentioned in recent posts Trex has been bouting with injury and this was our last chance at a solid long run before we start the taper. In total we logged 24+ miles, just shy of our goal, but a strong comeback in my opinion, in spite of the significant amount of pain we both experienced during and now after the runs.

Speaking of heels, it seems that mine took a bit of a beating during our 5/15K combo which was made worse on the trail, and now I have a nasty swollen red lump at the back of my heel that hurts quite a bit when I walk. So I am elevating it and icing it in hopes that there is no real injury, because being injured this close to our race would “sucks major donkey balls,” to quote my RH.

having a plan B–an alternative exercise routine to stick to during downtime, is extremely crucial for your mental game.

I took time off running and have been cross training with Trex since I frankly didn’t want to suffer injury as a result of over training, and had had a few early signs of things growing a bit unhappy with me right about the same time his foot started giving him fits. So in a show of solidarity and to grow my cross training muscles I joined him in his downtime in efforts to minimize the impacts of our grueling running schedule on my own body. Frankly I feel it did us some good to take some time to do more alternative exercises. I think we both needed to find some greater balance in our approach to running and sometimes being forced to is how it has to happen.

In an effort to maintain my cardio and core strength I have reacquainted myself with the love of the water, and have been swimming in addition to doing stationary bikes and weight exercises along side Trex. We also tried aqua jogging which I find to be quite awkward, although a good cardio workout, when done without the jogger belt. It will take more time to get used to this exercise and in the end it is rather boring which makes it more of a challenge to maintain focus while doing, that and frankly I feel ridiculous doing it!

But the key take away from this experience, for me, has been that having a b plan–an alternative exercise routine to stick to during downtime, is extremely crucial for your mental game. I for one found it very beneficial to be productive physically, even if it wasn’t gaining me ground in my running, because it has been a chance to practice fighting off those pesky mental demons that like to taunt and try to scare me into thinking I’m not ready.

I fully understand the impact to my bodily training by not running. It is extremely difficult to face a race feeling that you may be under prepared physically, but it is crucial to remember your training, and be prepared to face down those mental demons that try to tell you that: a few weeks of not running has undone nearly 2 years of base training. A BOLD FACED LIE! I am using this time to hone my positive self talk skills, practice how to be supportive to my partner–who is facing those demons daily, and just as importantly to slay my own demons. And after yesterday’s battle on the streets and trails I know that my plan B has been working. Je suis prête.

Ever since I met Rabbit and learned of her accomplishments… well she made me question just how far I should go on this crazy journey I’m on.

Hand to heart when I started I had no intentions of doing any races. None, zero, zip. That was two years and 3 months ago (June 2016).

“You could do that. You can’t do that. You can do that. You can’t do that. You won’t know unless you try.”

18 months I had no intention of ever doing more than maybe a half marathon. I even designed and 3D printed a PR display that only went up to half marathon.

And then I met Rabbit who, as I’ve mentioned before, the first question she asked after we met for the first time in person was did I run or something like after she saw me wearing a pair of Altra Lone Peak 2.5’s as my daily shoes.

Since then we’ve shared stories of runs, opinions of running, gear and training. In spite of our 1500 miles of distance apart we’ve even run together albeit in a virtual race.

Somewhere in there after I made her acquaintance, I find myself signed up, cash paid and travel plans made for not only a 50K in 10 weeks (OMG) but a 50Mile in 5 months (OMFG).

For those of you for whom these are mere training run distances now, do think back and remember a time when you weren’t quite as awesome as you are now and what you went through to get to where you are now.

And now I’m reading race reports of 100 mile races. I’m skimming and moving on from the race reports by runners who talk about their PR’s and 8 minute paces for 100 miles and their place on the podium.

I’m not ‘casting shade’ on these runners, their abilities are awesome, no doubt about it. But there’s absolutely nothing relatable to their reports for me. I can barely hold a sub 9 minute pace for a 5K and it had better be cold and non-hilly that day.

No the race reports that resonate with me are the ones by the folks who worry about making the cut offs. The ones who push through enormous, soul shattering amounts of pain both mentally and physically to cross that finish line before the last seconds tick off. I read how they trip and fall, wrenching body and mind, their battles with darkness, hallucinations, nutrition, hydration and boredom. Their tales of everything that goes wrong, travel plans, forgetting to pick up their head lamps, trying new foods and really regretting it, but most of all the walls they have to break through to keep putting one foot in front of another make me try to figure out how, when, if this might be me one day.

And my association with Rabbit and her endeavors in this ridiculous sport we participate in and there’s an ear worm in my head that plays over and over, “You could do that. You can’t do that. You can do that. You can’t do that. You won’t know unless you try.” make me believe it might be possible one day.

Note I have my own walls to worry about in this regard, age, weight, training time and let’s face it sheer physical resources. But you know what? I’m pretty sure that if such a time comes that I let this flight of fancy take root and become a reality some day that Bunny and Rabbit will be encouraging me the whole way and I’m pretty sure one or both of them will be there force feeding me liquids and calories, making sure I don’t leave an aid station without everything I need to keep pushing forward.

Yesterday was the end of Week 6 of my training schedule for our 50/50 training. This week ended in a double long run day. We did a 30K in the morning and a 15K in the evening. The 30K went better than I was expecting, we cut 2 minutes off our last pace times for a measly 25K.

Now with that said, we did a 7/1 run walk today for the runs. One of the things I’ve experienced which backs up like a bajillion other folks who’ve tried it is that my average pace goes up in a significant way when I intentionally run walk.

I tried a new fuel today, crunch peanut butter+Swerve+cocoa powder+ginger powder and coconut oil as well as a new drink mix, Ultima in Orange and Raspberry.

I’m not sure if it was the experimentation of different fuels, but for the 30K and around mile 10 the heat got up to 90 and kept going and the humidity was off the chart but by mile 15 I was feeling pretty queasy which is pretty unusual for me. I don’t do queasy much.

Bunny is having some issues with her knee, might be time for new shoes or less running or more core exercises. I’m always having issues so it’s just par for the course for me.

Overall we’re keeping up with the schedule with only a few minor issues. I pulled the Wednesday run out of the schedule as it just didn’t add anything and the extra recovery day is useful.

Barring major catastrophe we’re going to go to Dead Horse and see it through to the end.

With only 5 weeks into our 50 plan I’m half hoping Dead Horse Ultra has a DFL* award… I mean that only half in jest.

Dead Horse Ultra

Right now in the middle of Oklahoma Summer, 6 weeks into a low carb lifestyle, and being a year older than when I decided I wanted to do a 50K this year, I’m not anticipating this being a fast run even for me.

But barring life threatening injury I do fully expect finishing it and since there’s a 50 Mile run going on at the same time with the same cutoff time for both and the same start time I don’t expect getting a DNF*.

One of the things this plan which is more than really needed for a 50K that I set it out to do was get us to a point where we can enjoy our first 50K. My first races of all types I didn’t really enjoy them as I attempted them right at the cusp of my ability to do them.

But 31.5 miles is a long time to be on a trail and not enjoy it because you’re at the edge of your ability to keep moving forward.

I did pick up a new travel pack on my employer’s dime. No I’m not ripping them off, we have a system where you can cash in awards that you’re awarded by other employees for doing your job and get gift cards at various online merchants.

Yes it’s an environment where just doing your job well is enough to earn an award due to comparison to people that half ass phone it in.

* Runners Jargon (Random website found while googling but it included the values I wanted and isn’t asshattish like some others)